Ryanair is drastically reducing the frequency of flights on its service between Shannon and Hahn in Germany after a row with Aer Rianta over airport charges, writes Arthur Beesley.
The airline said last night that it would operate only one weekly service on the route, down from one daily at present.
Passengers will be disrupted by the development as the service was perceived to be successful. It is thought that 108,000 people used the route to Hahn, near Frankfurt, last year.
In the same row over landing fees, Ryanair has also threatened a similar reduction in the frequency of flights on its routes linking Shannon with Beauvais, near Paris, and Charleroi, near Brussels. There was no immediate response last night from Aer Rianta, which has claimed that the value to Ryanair of its incentives on the route in the past three years was €1.74 million, included promotional support worth €254,000.
The State airports group is understood to have made efforts in recent days to persuade Ryanair to maintain the frequency of the Hahn service. The dispute centres on discounts Ryanair received from Aer Rianta when it introduced the service three years ago. Aer Rianta agreed not to charge landing fees for three years after the service started.
With the three-year period ending on May 19th, Ryanair demanded continuation of the no-fee regime which provides a waiver on the average landing charge of €6.82 per passenger.
Aer Rianta was unwilling to continue the waiver and Ryanair is believed to have approached Aer Rianta's airport in Cork seeking the same no-fee conditions there that would apply to all new routes.
Aer Rianta is understood to have written late yesterday to Ryanair offering a series of discounts to the airline to operate the Shannon route for a further three years. It offered a 60 per cent discount on landing fees for the first year; a 40 per cent discount for the second; and a 20 per cent discount for the third.
Seen by The Irish Times, the Aer Rianta letter said the discounts and no-free regime amounted to a significant investment. It said: "On any specific route there is a time when the airport must be paid for the services it provides in order to be in a position to meet the operating costs, including security, in supporting the operation."
Ryanair claimed the introduction of landing fees was an abuse of a monopoly position by Aer Rianta at a difficult time for the Irish tourism business. In addition to Cork, it is believed to have offered Hahn service to airports in Rome and Barcelona.
Separately, it was unclear last night if the report of a special panel set up to advise Government on whether an independent terminal should be built at Dublin Airport had been delivered to the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan.
